Don’t Let Regret Keep You from Taking Trades

I spent this past weekend shelling out big bucks for one of those mammoth, motorized people transports you and I call an SUV.

Boy, this sucker is huge!

As I sat in my new (used) car, images of scaling mountains and crossing desert terrains filled my imagination. Hill climbing, rock climbing, mountain climbing, here I come! And then… a tap on the shoulder. The salesman awoke me from my vegetative state of drooling to show me the final all-in purchase price.

Wow! Sticker shock!

The images of grandeur disappeared and now all I could see were all the numbers followed by commas and more numbers and numbers… what a “huge” purchase this turned out to be! No matter what, whether a five dollar roll of toilet paper or a new car, I always feel buyer’s remorse (regret) when making a purchase.

Forex trading can be very similar. We put our money (real or demo) on the line in the pursuits of financial gain and happiness. Our trades are placed plentiful when the potential for profit is there, and we scurry away with lightning speed when the crowd starts selling off in great numbers. “Hurry, everybody out!”

We don’t want to be stepped on or left behind, right? So with the slightest unforeseen movement, the masses fear the worst is imminent. They get out as fast as they can, and we, of course, follow. This fear (and greed for some) becomes a controlling emotion, dictating their currency trading decisions and behavior. Just as powerful an emotion as fear and greed is regret.

Regret is similarly controlling in that it can keep us from placing a trade because we don’t want make a mistake. We undoubtedly want to feel good about our decisions and strategies.

In our attempt to do feel this way, we find it more painless to steer clear of making a trade all together, avoiding any risk of failure. Taking this mindset of avoidance, however, will definitely not lead us to the potential for profits that we seek.

Regret comes about after we make a decision and we then start picturing the things that could have gone differently. When trading, regret is an easy feeling to have because it can occur both when making a move or when doing absolutely nothing. For instances, you open a trade with the best intentions, only to have it stop out for a loss of your entire account balance. You automatically feel regret for ever taking the position and now being poor.

On the other side of the coin, you don’t take a position because you’re allergic to risk. Your missed opportunity turns out to be the trade of the century, and it would have made you a gazillionaire! Arrrgghh! You seep into a state of utter regret.

For both examples, it’s easy to imagine the could-have-beens. We envision ourselves in those “winning” realities and how everything is so heavenly. But then we come back to Earth where things are definitely not paradise.

We have all experienced the pleasantries of regret (**wink**), but they can actually be good for us. Sometimes regret can give us that extra kick in the ribs to get off the floor and back on our feet. It compels us to get right what we initially did wrong.

When the going gets tough and you lose yet another forex trade, instead of crying in the corner of your bath tub, the response to your mistake is too reevaluate your strategy and the market. You do more testing and try your skills on another new trade. You want that losing trade back!

In the last example, we used the regret we felt for our errors to motivate and encourage ourselves to try again. Taking this new perspective when things don’t go as plan will have a positive impact on your mental attitude and your trading as a whole. Don’t get hung up on the loss. Forget about it and move on!

That said, some FX traders have an issue with feeling regret even before a trade is made. No action has been taken, but you worry starts to consume the mind, and all they can think about is making a mistake. In this instance, the possibility of a regrettable outcome is stopping them from acting.

To help, we must remind ourselves that it isn’t the end of the world and that there’s still time to fix what’s not working. We can’t change our past trades but we can definitely make new ones to take those profits back.

Again, the key here is action; the point is to make the trade. Don’t let regret hold you back from progressing by means of action. And remember, not all risk is bad; Taking risks that are minimal and calculated are integral to growing into a successful forex trader.

About Dr. Pipslow

If you can't keep your emotions in check when trading, you will lose money. Lots of it. The most significant action that you can do to improve trading profits is to work on yourself. Really knowing yourself and how you think can give you an edge that others in the market don't have. My goal is to share practical advice to improve your forex psychology without boring you to death. Hopefully, you can develop the mental edge you need to become the best trader you can be.

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